Latest Articles about Foreign Policy
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Moscow Worried about Ankara’s Plans for Canal Bypassing Bosporus Strait
In early March 2020, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced that Ankara would soon call for bids on the construction of the planned Istanbul Canal, between the Black and Marmora seas (RIA Novosti, March 8). He said he hoped to complete that $25 billion project... MORE
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Armenian Government Stabilizes COVID-19 Cases, but Structural Risk Factors Remain
The COVID-19 situation in Armenia presently remains under control, although the peak of infection almost certainly has yet to occur. As of Sunday, March 29, 2,054 persons tested negative, and 424 positive, with 33 closed cases—30 resulting in recovery and 3 deaths. Each of the... MORE
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Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan Likely to Sign Border Treaty Soon to Avoid Worse Problems
Nearly 30 years after the disintegration of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), many former Soviet states are still struggling to deal with the delimitation and demarcation of their borders. In the cases involving Armenia and Azerbaijan or Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan (see EDM, January... MORE
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Kozak-Yermak Plan on Donbas: The Fine Print
The meeting of the Minsk-based Contact Group, held by videoconference on March 24–26, had been expected to officially create a new negotiating forum, named the Consultative Council—in fact, an accretion to the Minsk Contact Group on the conflict in eastern Ukraine. The meeting, however, did... MORE
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Kyiv Finds an Alibi to Step Back From Kozak-Yermak Plan on Donbas
The COVID-19 coronavirus emergency gives Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a non-political excuse for stepping back from the plan that his envoy, Andriy Yermak, accepted from Russian presidential envoy Dmitry Kozak on March 11 in the Minsk Contact Group. The plan would institute a Consultative Council,... MORE
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Belarus’s Geopolitical Loneliness
The veil of uncertainty (see EDM, March 17) surrounding Belarus’s short- to medium-term socio-economic prospects continues to thicken. Alexander Chubrik, a reputable economist, writes about the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse who have arrived in Belarus at the same time (Tut.by, March 16). They represent... MORE
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Uzbekistan Temporarily Chooses Observer Status Instead of Full Membership in Eurasian Union
On March 6, 2020, the Cabinet of Ministers of Uzbekistan approved the decision to apply for observer status with the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) (Kun.uz, March 7). The move brings to a close months of speculation about whether Tashkent would end previous president Islam... MORE
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Russia Pushes to Drastically Expand Its Influence Over Ukraine, Rest of Post-Soviet Space
In recent months, the Kremlin dramatically stepped up efforts to push its interests and political agenda across the post-Soviet space as part of various “negotiations” and “conflict resolution procedures.” A particularly striking example of this can be seen in the results of the most recent... MORE
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Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy Turns Blind Eye to Putin-Medvedchuk Scheming (Part Two)
*To read Part One, please click here. Viktor Medvedchuk’s party, Opposition Platform–For Life (OP-FL), holds 44 seats in Ukraine’s 450-seat parliament. Despite its limited support, it is the single-largest opposition party, and the only outspoken pro-Russia fraction in the Ukrainian parliament since the July... MORE
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Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy Turns Blind Eye to Putin-Medvedchuk Scheming (Part One)
On March 10, in Moscow, Ukraine’s leading Russophile politician Viktor Medvedchuk conferred with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Duma leaders about adding an “inter-parliamentary dimension” to the Normandy forum (Russia, Germany, France, Ukraine), which is an inter-governmental process. The idea, credited to Medvedchuk, is to... MORE